The social welfare measures in the Budget were attacked last night by groups dealing with poverty issues. The Combat Poverty Agency said that the poor would be slightly better off but that the net effect would be to widen the gap between rich and poor.
The Carers' Association said it was angry that only 50 extra carers would get the Carer's Allowance as a result of Budget rule changes.
Combat Poverty singled out the provision for children in particular.
"The net gain for children in many welfare-dependent families will only be 35 pence per week," it said.
This was the weekly value of the £1.50 rise in monthly Child Benefit from next September. For the third and subsequent child the rise will be £3 a month each.
There is to be no increase in the weekly child dependent allowance for social welfare recipients.
The maximum old-age pension for individuals is to rise by £5 a week with a rise of £1.50 in the weekly allowance for the adult dependants of pensioners.
For most other welfare payments, the increase will be £3 a week with rises of £1.20 to £1.40 a week for adult dependants.
These increases will be paid from next June.
"The £3 increase in personal payments and the £5 increase in pensions, ahead of the rate of inflation is welcome," said Combat Poverty.
"The fact that the majority of payments are now above the rates recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare and ahead of the schedule outlined in Partnership 2000 is welcome."
But it said the Budget would fail to make a major impact on poverty. "While there are a number of welcome measures to promote social inclusion, given the very favourable public finances and economic projections, the Budget falls short of the reform needed to implement policies to radically alter the lives of many of our citizens who currently live in poverty," said its director, Hugh Frazer.
The Carers' Association called on the Minister for Social Welfare to relax the means test for the Carer's Allowance prior to the publication of the Social Welfare Bill "so that at least the 30,000 full-time carers in the home will get the Carer's Allowance".
The Minister, Mr Dermot Ahern, outlined five major areas of concern addressed in the Budget:
Improving the position of older people: The pension increase together with changes in tax relief represents "a huge boost to the older people in this country".
Improving the real value of social welfare payments: The increases for welfare recipients and adult dependants range from 3 per cent to 4.6 per cent with inflation running at 2 per cent.
Supporting people with disabilities and carers: People in each group get an increase of £5 a week if they are over 66 and £3 a week if they are under 66. People getting Carer's Allowance will also get a free travel pass.
Employment measures: The Family Income Supplement for working parents on low incomes is to be based on net take-home pay from next October. People already in receipt of FIS will gain an average of £11 a week. Other measures include more places on the Back-to-Work Allowance scheme.
Developing family and community supports: The Child Benefit increases will go to 513,000 families with 1.2 million children.
An extra £2.75 million is being provided for such services as family resource centres, marriage and child counselling and family mediation services.
The National Social Service Board, which provides information and training for Citizen's Information Centres and for the voluntary sector generally is to receive an extra £320,000.
The cost of the social welfare improvements will be £125 million next year and £225 million in a full year.